By Paul Nwosu

Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, 83, the electoral umpire who organised and conducted the most transparent and credible election in the history of our country has been interred amidst encomiums at his Ajali country home, Anambra State. The funeral attracted the crème de la crème of politicians from the southeast and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who was represented by Engr David Umahi, Minister of Works.

Among those who paid glowing tributes to the late Electoral Commission Chairman was Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo who assured Ndi Anambra that Prof. Nwosu obviously deserves a national honour but it’s going to be pursued through dialogue and not fighting. The relevant stakeholders will meet President Tinubu with facts to request for a befitting national honour for the late professor of political science and election guru. And he’s confident Mr President will grant it.

This happened after Senator Adams Oshiomhole and some of his colleagues from the southwest zone had exhibited a warped understanding of Prof. Nwosu’s role in the annulled June 12 election, all in a bid to torpedo Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe’s motion to immortalize Prof. Humphrey Nwosu.

Now that Prof. Nwosu’s funeral has once again raised the issue of the annulment of June 12 election, it is important that some very brutal truths be told for the benefit of the generation who were neither born when it happened nor taught the history in school.

Anytime the issue of June 12 is broached, all manner of righteous historians and revisionists tend to pop up from a particular part of the country as though they alone voted or worked for the emergence of Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola.

The motion was hardly raised in the upper chamber when the sleepy ones snapped out of their slumber. Those who have long lost their voices reached into the inner recesses of their ‘agbada’ and ‘babariga’ for their forgotten bitter kola nuts (Garcinia) to clear their throats. And because the subject is an emotive one, you hear all manner of contributions that are completely off the mark.

What hurts most about these uninformed and sometimes downright mischievous arguments against the immortalisation of Prof. Nwosu, is that some of these Senators had either reached voting age or could read newspapers and comprehend radio/television broadcasts when June 12 happened. Why they opted for lies instead of the truth is baffling. Or is it part of the game of politics or just a collective attempt to falsify what happened before our very eyes?

Interestingly, those who spoke against the recognition of Humphrey Nwosu on the Senate floor would first of all preface their presentations with comments like: “I don’t have anything against my brothers from the southeast” (that is), Senators Abaribe, Umeh and the rest of them. Senator Adeola started out by saying that he’s not “speaking across party or ethnic lines…” Another one even went as far as saying that he “respects the late NEC Chairman, Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, but…”

But the words he eventually spewed out of his mouth was full of hate and disdain for the deceased. This disrespect for a man whose record is yet to be surpassed in this country, as far as elections are concerned, should be totally condemned. It has become necessary therefore to situate Nwosu’s involvement in our electoral process in the right context vis-à-vis his traducers who have ignorantly or deliberately refused to acknowledge his work.

Prof. Humphrey Nwosu was the sixth electoral umpire this country had. For the avoidance of doubt those before him are: Ronald Wraith (an expatriate), 1958; Chief Eyo Esua, 1960; Chief Michael Ani,1979; Justice Victor Ovie Whisky, 1980; Prof. Eme Awa, 1987 and Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, 1989.
Of the whole lot, he was the only National Electoral Commission (NEC) Chairman that delivered the freest and fairest election in our history. Even the expatriate was teleguided by the Colonial Office to deliver the prime ministership to a reluctant region of this country that they could manipulate from London. That marked the beginning of fraudulent elections in Nigeria until Prof. Nwosu arrived on the scene. After him, technology was introduced into our elections but instead of getting better, the integrity of the process worsened due to the manipulations and circumvention of the system.
Prof. Nwosu set out to conduct a credible election. Even his detractors admit that he started well. He demonstrated an uncommon zeal to give Nigeria what it had never had before – leaders who were true products of the people’s votes. This led to his innovation of the Option A4 voting system.
A political scientist, Prof. Nwosu had studied the loopholes in previous elections and came up with very practical ways to plug them. This was because he knew at that time, how important it is to ensure a proper recruitment process (through elections) for public offices. Today we agonise over the need to improve our recruitment process because of the poor outcomes we have been having from subsequent elections and the nuisance values some of the products have constituted. But this was what Nwosu saw ahead of time and created a near perfect process of producing public servants of the people’s choice, which is what democracy is all about.
Critics of Prof Nwosu conveniently forget that he served under a military regime where defying directives often led to severe consequences or even death. The military was known for violating its own laws when it was not convenient for them. You don’t stand in front of a moving train with arms stretched forward, believing you can stop it. It will crush you.
The military President, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida expressly directed Prof. Nwosu to discontinue announcing the election results. Given that the military appointed him, what did these demagogic Senators expect him to do? Defy the junta and risk being crushed? The expectation that he should have unilaterally declared the result is absurd.
Senator Oshiomhole’s arguement that Prof. Nwosu should have had the courage to announce the result is hypocritical. Oshiomhole, as a labour leader under a civilian government, had the opportunity to show similar courage by standing up to President Olusegun Obasanjo but he backed down. Yet he expected Nwosu to have defied an armed military regime.
8.President Babangida has since his book launch apologised over the annulment of June 12 as if he knew a time like this will come when a few politicians will be out to distort history.

In view of this development one would have expected Senator Oshiomhole and his co-travellers to have lambasted Mr Maradona for the belated apology after he had caused the death of some people. But they did not do that. Instead, most of the ruling class, including NADECO chieftains who fled the country, were scrambling for space at the book launch venue to donate money. Who is fooling who? If the late Prof. were alive to witness the gathering at the book launch he would have had the greatest shock of his life.

If Babangida regrets the annulment, it simply means that he has absolved Prof. Nwosu from any blame. But Oshiomhole and his Southwest allies are insisting on making Nwosu, an Igbo man, the scapegoat instead of holding the actual perpetrators accountable. This is a case of the chicken and pot. Instead of the chicken to blame the knife for its predicament, the chicken is pointing accusing finger at the pot whose only job is to cook whatever the owner put there.
A proverb says that when you point an accusing finger at someone, the remaining three are pointing at you. The argument of Senator Oshiomhole and his team against the late NEC Chairman is that he did not have the “courage” to declare the election results that his military employer ordered him not to. For Oshiomhole and his friends to feel so strong about “courage” presupposes that they are men of courage. The resent events in the Senate where every one of them chorused “Aye!” have indeed shown how much courage they have in a civilian democracy, and on a matter of grave national importance that required utmost courage and transparency. Yet they want Prof. Nwosu to confront armed soldiers with bare hands.
The hypocrisy of some politicians is just sickening.
President Tinubu will do well to grant the Southeast Governors a listening ear and give Prof. Humphrey Nwosu the recognition he richly deserves.

Paul Nwosu PhD is Editor-in-Chief of Anambra Times